Eduardo Salas

Scott Tannenbaum

In Teams That Work, Scott Tannenbaum and Eduardo Salas present the seven drivers of team effectiveness and the clearest recommendations on what really makes teams great. Readers will find actionable, evidence-based tips for being an effective team leader, a great team member, a supportive senior leader, or an impactful consultant.

The Seven Drivers of Team Effectiveness

Teams That Work

matej yangwao

** spoiler alert **
           Generally great overview for construction of team efficacy but nothing thrill or hacky.

Learned definitely few bits, maybe style of writing would impressed me differently as found it more likely styled for corporate rather than "modern" team work, albeit hard truths are there

More likely feels summary of other books I read on coaching teams.


>We would not consider a team highly effective if it frivolously expended resources, spending all its “chips” to hit a short-term goal because, in so doing, it degrades its future capabilities and performance.

>When a team produces positive results when conditions are favorable but crumbles when things get tough or takes an extremely long time to rebound from negative events, we will not consider it effective.

>Similarly, we do not deem it effective if it burns out its members and therefore lacks the vitality needed to adapt, persevere, and innovate.

>Short-term results are an imperfect indicator of team effectiveness.

>Have you ever wondered what drives team effectiveness? These drivers — capability, cooperation, coordination, and communication — consistently make the difference.

>A highly effective team is one that demonstrates sustained performance, team resilience, and ongoing vitality.

>The second driver, cooperation, centers on the attitudes and beliefs that individuals bring to the team each day. Coordination, the third driver, is at the heart of teamwork; it refers to the teamwork behaviors that a team needs to demonstrate to be highly effective. The fourth driver is communication, the information exchange within a team and with individuals and groups outside the team.

>The last factor is coaching. Without question, leadership matters. A good leader can help a team be more successful, and anyone who has ever worked for a poor leader can attest to bad leadership. An effective team utilizes all these drivers.

>Task-related capabilities that individuals must possess to be able to perform their work assignments
• Teamwork-related capabilities that people need to work and collaborate effectively with one another

>Teams with “too much talent” may have more unhealthy disputes and, in some cases, may go so far as to undermine one another overtly.

>In team environments, teamwork capabilities supplement task work capabilities.

>teams with higher collective orientation and preference for teamwork demonstrate higher levels of performance.

>The first of the cooperative attitudes is trust.

> Psychology safety 
>It’s a belief that if people speak up, admit weakness, or any behaviors previously noted, they won’t be judged harshly

>Collective efficacy is the third key cooperative belief. While self-confidence conveys a general idea of ​​one’s capabilities, self-efficacy is more specific. It is the belief that you can execute effectively in a particular situation to get the desired results.

> Collective efficacy, like self-efficacy, is a shared belief among team members that the team can perform particular assignments well or be effective in specific situations or contexts.

>Finally, we have cohesion, which can be thought of as the glue that induces a team to remain united. There are two components of cohesion:
 • Social cohesion.
 • Task cohesion.

> Social cohesion refers to a shared interpersonal attachment among team members. Task cohesion is the belief that the work of the team is performing is important, so team members feel committed to the task.


>Team coordination is important when team members must rely on one another to accomplish the team’s goals.

>Monitoring (maintaining situational awareness): A team is better able to perform effectively when its team members are alert and aware, watch out for one another, and have an accurate sense of what might affect the team.

>An unstated inference is that if their team members would communicate more with one another, their teamwork and performance would magically improve.

>Quality communication means sharing useful information accurately and on time with the right people.

>Closed-loop communication involves three quick steps:
• The call out or initial communication
• The check back where the recipient conveys their understanding of what they heard
• The close in which the message sender either confirms or corrects what was conveyed

>Research shows that closed-loop communication is associated with higher team effectiveness.

>It also found that the task-focused leadership behaviors (providing structure) and person-focused behaviors (empowering team members) contributed to team effectiveness.

> Task-focused behaviors include:
 • Ensuring clarity and alignment. Teams are better able to coordinate and adapt when team members possess clear, shared, and accurate cognitions.
 • Holding teammates accountable.
 • If no actions are taken to hold team members accountable for doing what they need to do, coordination and performance will suffer.
 • Removing obstacles and garnering support. All teams face obstacles and challenges. Leaders should help identify and remove obstacles.

> Team-focused behaviors include:
 • Managing team emotions and attitudes. Research reveals that it is difficult, if not impossible, to sustain team effectiveness without the “right” cooperative attitudes. Who is monitoring the team’s pulse and helping manage emotions and attitudes?
 • Fostering psychological safety. Take actions that help ensure team members feel comfortable speaking up and being themselves. Without psychological safety, communication and performance suffer.
 • Encouraging participation and empowerment. No one can see and do everything on a team.


>Ideas and contributions emerge throughout an effective team, and team members feel empowered to step up and help one another.

>Promoting learning and adaptation. The best teams become great by continually learning and adjusting. So, helping individual team members learn and develop is the only way to sustain team effectiveness.

>The word ‘team’ has been made into an acronym that means Together Everyone Achieves More, and the roles of teams cannot be over-emphasized.

>For example, the rate at which time-sensitive information is passed, individualism, and a lack of unity are common issues you may face if you work in a team.

>If a team achieves its short-term goals but can’t complete any long-term goals, it is not an effective team.

>Effective teams are usually more coordinated than less effective teams. Effective teams plan longer and have a system that works.
 • While effective team communication is a process of information sharing that runs smoothly, an ineffective team doesn’t disseminate information properly.

Teams That Work The Seven Drivers of Team Effectiveness

Reviews